Tag Archives: Triton Marine Services

November 4th was the big day for the launch of our boat. It was very traumatic to watch the crew bring in the travel lift and move her to the water, more so when we learned that the travel lift operator was a trainee! The lift was not that large so they had to remove the forestay for the lift. Richard walked along side the boat as it was moved to the water.

Once at the water’s edge the boat was slowly lowered into the water. Triton Marine Services then ensured that all the through hulls were water tight before releasing the lift. She was then tied up to the dock for final inspection before being moved to Deerfield Marina where the final “toys” are to be installed.

Deerfield Marina is on the ICW at mile 200 (mile zero is at Norfolk Virginia).

After the thrill of seeing her for the first time, the first significant day for us was October 31 when they moved our boat out of the shed and put the mast on her. They had to wait for a calm day to do this tricky manoeuvre. It was amazing to see the crane lift up the mast and then set it on to the boat. The Selden mast is well engineered – we liked the attention to detail such as tangs with built-in recesses for the cotter pins! We did not know the tradition of placing a coin under the mast so we have an American quarter there. If we ever need to remove the mast, it will be replaced with a toonie!

After the mast was put up, we needed to make her ready for the official launch into the water, including installing the chain rode and Fortress anchor (our secondary anchor).

Additional pictures on this event can be seen in the Picture Galleries page.

Our brand new sailboat, a Caliber 40LRC, was delivered to Beaufort North Carolina in early October. We arrived on October 19th after visiting friends in Houston and driving across the States with a stop in New Orleans. We saw our new boat the next day. It was inside Triton Marines Services’ workshop having the fridge / freezer, autopilot and all the electronics (VHF, SSB, stereo, radar and GPS) installed. The technicians at Triton Marine were very talented at commissioning boats – they do a few Calibers every year. When we arrived in North Carolina they had just completed an upgrading course with Raytheon/Raymarine electronics.

Beaufort, North Carolina, established in 1709, has long been an important base for whalers, fishermen and pirates including Blackbeard! Many of the buildings and homes in the 12 block area of the historic waterfront district along Taylor’s Creek are the same as they have been for centuries. Thanks to the Historic Preservation Committee, Beaufort looks today as much as possible as it did in the past. And they have a great Maritime Museum with artifacts from The Queen Anne’s Revenge, Blackbeard’s ship. The Watercraft Center has a collection of wooden boats and there are usually several projects on the go, either restoration or new boats, that can be viewed.

Beaufort is a lovely community with lots to do. We have rented an apartment in an historic building with a view of the harbour. We can sit on the porch to watch the sunsets…